


Jade-Winged Butterfly

by Joel7th



Category: The Originals (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Canonical Character Death, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-04
Updated: 2015-06-04
Packaged: 2018-04-02 21:00:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,995
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4073710
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Joel7th/pseuds/Joel7th
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In his dreams, they were all vampires, his siblings, his beloved wife and even himself. In his dreams his own brother murdered his wife in front of his eyes.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Jade-Winged Butterfly

_“_ _―_ _A butterfly lands upon your finger, unaware that it will lead to her tragic end.”_

“Gia, be a sweetheart and take off your daylight ring.”

The order was given and Gia obeyed, regardless of her willingness.

The ring hit the brick-covered ground with a ‘clink’ and Gia burst into flame in front of his desperate eyes.

The sun was never kind to the likes of them, even to a beautiful and innocent creature such as Gia.

He screamed and screamed, but neither his voice nor his tears could stop the flame from consuming Gia.

His darling Gia. No more.

A jade-winged butterfly soared from the charred flesh of her corpse and fluttered around him for a split second. Vanished from sight.

He was screaming still when his eyes shot open.

His voice disturbed the woman by his side, robbing her from her sweet dream.

“Darling, we really don’t need an alarm clock if you keep making such noise so early in the morning,” said the dark-haired woman in a sleep-laden tone, rubbing her heavy eyelids.

Sweat-soaked and wide-eyed, he stared at her for a minute, before hugging her form tightly as though his whole life depended on it.

“There, there, big boy,” she cooed, softly patting his mussed dark hair. A jade-winged butterfly was gleaming on her forefinger, catching a feeble sun beam peaking through the crack in the curtain. “It’s alright, I’m here with you.”

He remained silent as he pressed his face to her naked bosoms while she was soothing him with small, tender strokes on his hair and cheeks. At times like this she became the mother, and he a big, scared child in her arms seeking consolidation after a bad dream; at other times, he was a trustworthy gentleman with strong shoulders for her to lean on and strong arms that she liked to be wrapped in.

“That weird-shit vampire dream sequence again?”

She felt him nodding against her breast. “What was it this time?”

“You took off your daylight ring and the sun burnt you. I couldn’t do anything...”

“So you were screaming?”

“It worries me, darling, that you keep having those nonsensical dreams. I think you need to pay Cami a visit. She may be able to help.”

“What should I tell her then? That I have these recurring dreams where my wife and I are vampires?”

She chuckled. “Let’s hear what Freud has anything to say about it.” Her violinist fingers were weaving in his dark hair, messaging his scalp. To her un-surprise, her husband purred softly as though a satiated big cat. “You have a weird fixation with fire, don’t you? Remember the time you tried to fix the stove and ended up nearly burning our house down?”

“That was an unfortunate accident,” he mumbled, nuzzling his cheek to her neck. His stubble caused her to squirm in his arms. “And no, I’m sure as hell I don’t have any ‘weird fixation’ with fire.”

“You’re secretly unsatisfied with me?” She turned his head so that she could look at him in the eyes, her own black eyes squinting and her eyebrows knitted.

“When you’re trying to be serious but in fact not, yes.”

Her attempted serious look was wiped away as soon as she broke into a peal of hearty laughter, and she squeezed his torso with her arms. “Can never fool my wise husband, can I?”

“You’ve tried,” he said, finding his distress yielding to her contagious laughter. “To no avail.”

“But really, darling, I’m worried for you.” She was wiping mirthful tears from her eyes, her voice quivering with her effort to quell her laugh. “You’ve got to talk to Cami. As far as I’m concerned, she’s the best psychiatrist in town.”

“I have no doubt about her credibility. She deserves worldly praise for having cured my brother’s psychopathic tendencies after all. All right, I’ll pay her a visit, perhaps a nice lunch in her favorite restaurant on Bourbon Street. Provided I survive the meeting with the board of directors this morning.”

He proceeded to climb off her and the bed but she caught him by his arm, holding him in place.

“You can always let Nik and Bex deal with them for a change. You know, taking a day off, maybe a short vacation. Just you and me.” She pressed his strong hand to her cheek. “You’ve been stretching yourself recently and I think your bad dreams can be traced back to your stress.”

“Nik and Bex are precisely the reason I have to be present. Always count on them to scare the crap out of the directors.” He placed a light kiss on her hand that was holding his. “Nice ring, by the way. Where did you get it?”

“A voodoo’s shop,” she whispered, trying for mystique. “It is said to be a magical object with immense powers.”

“A magical object with immense powers sold at a reasonable price I bet?” He was unimpressed.

She smiled and took off her butterfly ring. A frightened look immediately crossed his face. The way she did it, sliding the ring off the forefinger of her left hand with her right, was too similar to the horrifying scene in his dream.

His wife did not fail to notice it.

“Darling, I’m not going to burst into flame,” she said, pulling at the curtain. The early sun poured onto her bare skin like soft liquid gold. “See?”

He did not know he had breathed a sigh of relief.

She gently took his hand and placed the ring in his palm, raising his fine, dark eyebrows. “Take it with you. It’s a good-luck charm. Jade wards off evils, bad lucks and... nightmares.”

“Who said that? The seller?”

“I said that, OK.” She folded his fingers around the tiny object. “Besides, this way I can be with you all day.”

“Cheesy,” he complained, but tried putting on the ring nonetheless. It barely fit his little finger. “Nik and Bex are going to laugh their asses off once they see it.”

“Let the envious children laugh,” she said, pulling his head down so that her lips met his.

...

They exchanged another kiss before he stepped in his Mercedes. Immaculate in dark suit, with an air of authority to match, the CEO of the Mikaelsons Corp.

“Don’t forget my concert tonight, OK?”

Through the open window he heard his wife’s voice calling after him. A smile playing on his lips, he placed the ring on the dashboard. Sunlight light passed through the transparent wings of the butterfly, exposing its eternal flaws - perhaps the only precious stone to glorify in its imperfection. A beauty so honest yet so exquisite. Just like his beloved wife.

He turned on the radio. They were playing some French song on a random channel. “Jade butterfly” was the only thing he was able to catch. The song was a tad too mellow for his usual taste but it was good nonetheless. Before long he found himself humming with the music.

...

The jade-winged butterfly fluttered around him jovially before landing on his finger. He yearned to touch it but fear of crushing the delicate creature prevented him from doing so.

“You shouldn’t be here. The stress on your human body will be too much –”

“Don’t tell me Niklaus daggered you again!”

His sister sounded so angry but was looking so sad in front of him. She did not appear in the form of Eva Sinclair like he remembered seeing her the last time. It was understandable though: in this realm every soul appeared as they truly were.

“He did not. It was I who did,” he answered her calmly. The horror-stricken look on her beautiful face brought a needle to his heart. It ached him to know that he could erase that look with a few of his words, but just for once he did not want to. “It is best that you go back, Rebekah –”

“Tell me where you are laying...” she cried. Sounded distant when it reached his ears. “... so that I can find you and undagger you -”

“Then what, sister?”

This aloofness sounded even strange to him, stranger when it was coating the tone he was speaking to his beloved Rebekah, whom he held nothing but utmost adoration. The little sister that was always caught in her brothers’ selfish webs.

“What about Hope? What about Hayley? What about your promise to her?”

“A promise I never made,” he corrected, watching her face crumpled in despair. “As for Hope, I count on you and Freya, and...”

He paused to take a deep breath. The thought of his brother increased the agony in his chest ten-fold. “... and Niklaus’ love. He can treat anyone with cruelty, but never his daughter, never Hope.”

“But we need you, Elijah,” she pled, tears choking her voice. “We need you as we have always needed you.”

She bit her lips till they bled, as though fighting herself for the words her mouth wanted to spill. She lost. “Gia is dead. She doesn’t need you anymore. But we are still living, cursed as we are, and we need you, Elijah. We need you as a family. Always and forever. Please, brother.”

He felt that he should be infuriating at the mention of Gia’s name. Like she had been nothing more than Niklaus’ words: “collateral damage”. Instead he only felt a profound sadness, amplified by the sweetness of Gia's early-morning smile when she folded his fingers around the jade ring.  

The butterfly on his finger shook her wings ever slightly.

“I am sorry, Rebekah. You have to leave. Your current human body is not able to endure your prolonging in this realm.”

“No, don’t send me off, Elijah! No!” desperately she cried. The jade-winged butterfly took flight from his hand and circled around her. Her image blurred and blurred, until he was alone in this vast expanse of nothingness.

The little creature returned to his hand like a faithful lover.

...

He opened his eyes just in time to see that he was about to collide with a monster truck. He veered his car sharply to the side, avoiding the hand of Death by a hairbreadth.

Panting heavily, he looked to his phone, laid on the passenger seat. Nik was calling. Probably just Bex using their brother’s phone.

He did not understand why and how he could have dozed off while driving. It was unlike him at all. Moreover, he remembered well his dream. The young woman’s anguished cries that brought a vague pain to his chest even now. She had Bex’s face and she was speaking with Bex’s voice. She was Bex, he knew, or at least her projection in his peculiar vampire dreams. It was not unusual to see his siblings in them: Freya, Finn, Nik, Kol, Bex and even the late Henryk. Bex was a vampire, an Original to be exact, like himself and the rest of them, save Freya and Nik. He shuddered at the thought of his own speech in the dream, of what Nik had done. To Gia. He thanked God, or whoever above that all of those horrible things stayed within the boundaries of the dream world.

He glanced at the dashboard, finding the butterfly ring shining under sunlight. He imagined it flapping its exquisite wings and soaring. But always it returned to his hand. He touched it, feeling a coolness beneath his fingertips despite the sun’s heat. Good thing it had dragged him out of the dream. A magical good-luck charm indeed.

He picked up the phone and was unsurprised to hear Bex on the speaker, mingling with Nik’s incoherent voice in the background. Mostly complaints about Bex’s fussiness. He knew his siblings well enough to tell.

“Hello Bex, I’m on my way. Just traffic. Don’t worry...”

 _“_ _―_ _A butterfly lands upon your finger, unaware that it will lead to her tragic end.”_

_“But a jade-winged butterfly endures. She will flap her wings till the end of time.”_

_End_

 

**Author's Note:**

> Comments are welcome :)


End file.
